If there is one day that I HAVE to post something, it’s on my “bloggeversary”, June 26th. 4 years ago I was sitting in the computer room of my house “studying” (studying = stalking everything UBC because that’s how stoked I was) for my grade 12 provincial exams, anticipating starting my first year at UBC in the following September. Whoa, THAT was a lifetime ago. Now I am currently on my computer, writing a blog post while I’m anticipating about an exciting opportunity that has come up in my life, woo. Once you graduate from high school, things just keep changing. You go into first year university (assuming you took this route) and you can say that you can anticipate (my new favourite word apparently) where you will be until you finish your degree, or maybe not, lots of people realize university isn’t their thing and they choose to follow a different path. Some people go into a Science degree in order to fulfill their lifelong desire to become a doctor, and after four years, they graduate with a Fine Arts degree because they took that one Visual Art elective in first year and they realized Science wasn’t for them – you may think that this is an exaggeration, but really, it’s not, it happens. UBC was a time of finding myself, a time to follow various paths until the signs along the road became clearer and I started following a path that seemed to have a clearer destination than when I first set foot on it. If you’re someone that thinks they know where they will be in four years, then great! If you’re someone that doesn’t know where they will be in four years, even better, create your path from scratch! Mind you, it always is nice to have some direction, but do it for you, don’t do it for someone else. I would go back to first year in a heartbeat, would I change the way I did some things, or would I keep it the same? That’s a tough question. I feel like all the things that happened along the way got me to where I am today – the people I met, friendships gained and friendships lost, the experiences I experienced, my involvement, academic difficulties, all of it. If those things hadn’t happened, I would not be who I am today or where I am today. So really, pave your destination, but there are no guarantees that it will get paved in one go.

And because I’m feeling so throwbacky…here’s an irrelevant music video from forever ago…because I heard the song today. I am pretty sure I loved this song between the ages of 9-13, and I think I still enjoy it to the same extent. I can’t get over the level of corny in music videos from the early 2000s, like what?

I am still alive, actually. And I graduated with an expensive piece of paper. What. Four years goes by super fast folks!

I know I haven’t been very active here in my fourth year, or at least as active as I had anticipated — to be honest, one of my reasons for the lack of blogging especially in my second term of fourth year was because one of my classes required us to use WordPress for blogging, and I always kept that logged in and was too lazy to continuously switch accounts. But now that it’s time for the new class of 2019…? to join UBC, I’ll be more active on here to answer everyone’s questions as I’ve noticed my blog has been peaking with traffic. So yes, as an alumni(how weird to say), I am willing to help you all get through what I was experiencing four years ago. :O As per always, I will experience the excitement vicariously through all of you new to UBC kiddos!

On a side note, another reason for my activity here will probably be because I’ve realized how liberating it is to have a blog and have a place to write your thoughts. And on that note, I highly encourage everyone to start a blog as they’re going into UBC (or any university, or whatever new chapter you are starting in your life), it’s amazing to be able to go back and reflect on 4 years of your life, especially when it’s at the stage where you’re going through SO many changes — coming out of UBC, I am definitely not the same person that went in. Anywho, cheerio! 🙂

2 months later. STILL alive. It’s snowing. That makes me so happy. It’s perfect. It’s beautiful. It’s wonderful. It’s peaceful. It’s blissful. The next week is going to be hectic crazy for me with studying, I plan to do the morning-night study regime for the next week and a half. On the bright side, I’m done with exams fairly early..relatively speaking to my past exam schedules. But this term. This term was great. It lived up to the fourth year-ness academically for sure. I can’t believe I only have one more term of proper undergrad…CRAZY. I think usually my last week of classes is fairly low key, but this term, not so much, I felt like I had so much to do, it was never-ending, so hitting submit on the last assignment of this term was rather liberating. I actually love the first week of exams (if I don’t have an exam in the first couple days that is) because I actually like taking the entire day off to study…..because really, my one purpose in life for the next 12-13 days or so is to study my butt off. Don’t have any classes to go to, don’t have any other assignments to submit. Just eat, sleep, study, eat, sleep, study, study, sleep. and eat. with small breaks here and there.

And side note, there’s a freaking coyote roaming around on campus, and EVERYONE and their mother, have seen it, but not me. I have yet to see this coyote that everyone is taking pictures of.

One more side note. It’s Black Friday..and ever since my prof showed my class a video of Black Friday in the States, I don’t even want to experience it anymore…it’s half crossed off of my bucket list because I’d just, rather not.

Happy last day of September. This is the point in the term where I start to feel….sad….. except I don’t have time to be sad. I always like to cherish September to its fullest, since it’s such a “fresh” month (new courses, new year, new start, new commitments, new schedule, new EVERRRYYTHIIINGGG !). I also had my first midterm of my fourth year, which didn’t exactly go as intended…..but that’s okay, it’s still September, summer mode is still waning away. But not to worry, I have a couple more midterms this week, time for redemption? Maybe. I tried so hard to not fall behind in my readings this year, although this year I have A LOT of readings (probably because my courses this term reflect me being 60% Science-y and 40% Arts-y, as opposed to the usual 80-100% Science and 0-20% Arts). But yes, as I tried not to fall behind in my readings, I realized I was only caught up in my readings for one class….oops. I’m also taking this one course(oh degree requirements), which I took the pre-req of last year, I’m just so uninterested in it that it’s mentally and physically exhausting to actually pick up the textbook and read it – so therefore I neglect it, just like I did last year, except that posed to be an issue for the midterms, oops. So yes, I have just started to get into the routine of things, it was definitely a struggle for the first 2-3 weeks of classes, but I think I’m picking up the pieces and figuring out how to juggle my schedule. LET ME TELL YOU, the busier you keep yourself, the more efficiently you learn to do things in a timely manner – #learningexperiencez First and second year me had so much idle time(or at least I perceived to have enough time) to just casually scroll through my Facebook newsfeed every 5 minutes, now, not so much. I used to talk to people on Facebook chat and have conversations with them for hours…. I don’t think I’ve done that in MONTHS. I remember thinking it was old people(because at the time, in my mind, you would only be busy if you were old) that didn’t have time for Facebook….I have become that old person, at the ripe old age of 21, YIPPEE.

In approximately 6 days I will be starting the last first day of school of my undergrad – very likely the last first day of my UBC educational career. “How do you feel about that?” 😐 sighs for days. I love UBC, and from all my past posts, especially from my first and second year, one can tell that I absolutely love this place. I looked up the hashtag UBC on Instagram and feelings of nostalgia is what I drowned in when I saw the results. First years with pictures of their student cards all excited to start their university careers…and I’m all “take me back”. First year was wonderful, all the hype and excitement, I could bring that all back up again if I wanted to. Starting fourth year on the other hand has a different kind of “excitement” boiling up in me. To be honest, I just feel old. Feelings of “been there, done that” surround me constantly, but no, I still have so much more to experience and I have approximately 8 months to immerse myself in the unknowns I have yet to know. #UBCbucketlist

Now that school starts in less than a week, the campus is starting to buzz again, people actually exist…this is a slow preparation for when classes actually start and you have to maze your way through 100s and 100s of students going in every which way – something I am NOT looking forward to, but that hustle and bustle on Main Mall by the fountain in between each class, that’s one of the things that make UBC what it is, “a place of mind.” Oh, the irony.

Places to avoid for the next three weeks if you don’t want to get trampled on: Bookstore + SUB and its vicinities.

…to keep up with posts on this blog. But that’s not working out very well. Ultimately, I want to try to blog as much as possible in my fourth, and final year of my undergrad (EEEEEEEKKK!). Anyway, while we’re at it….I’ve been thinking about life, the future, etc. consistently for the past couple months. To be honest, it’s scary. High school used to be that “safe” place once upon a time…then university became that new “safe” place….and once you’re in the “real world” where’s your “safe” place? We keep getting introduced to these little portions of time that we come to define as our “safe” places…but they never seem to be constant. New experiences can be scary, and so many things can seem uncertain until you establish yourself within your goals and dreams. I wanted the summer to go by as slow as possible…that’s not working out in my favour…July is almost over. I’ve lost all concept of time…because time just keeps fast forwarding. I know August will be a month of craziness and I’m not sure if I’m QUITE ready for that. It feels like just yesterday that I was a 17 year-old anxiously anticipating her residence assignment for her first year of university…and now look at me…I’m ‘dreading'(I could have used a better word) the start of my last year of undergrad. Although time has gone by fast, I’ve changed as a person and matured and experienced things I never knew I would. I’ve fought against getting consumed by the world and its desires, I’ve gotten lost in my own goals and dreams, and I’ve also tried to live the dreams of others while trying to find myself. It’s been a mixture of struggles and successes, sandwiched between emotions and memories. It’s a lot less scarier when you have the right people standing by your side, while you both experience similar roller coasters of experiences and emotions. There will always be uncertainties as you face the future, but you have to emphasize your life on what is certain and then slowly step into uncertainties as they slowly become stabilized certainties. Regardless of how alone you might feel when it comes to facing the future, you’re never alone and you need to have that fact solidified in your head – you and thousands….millions…billions… of others are in it together. In it to face life, one step at a time. I just need to keep reminding myself of that instead of getting so caught up about what’s going to happen 6 months from now. BREATHE. Think about the present. Living in the present allows you to prepare yourself for the future.